Research Paper on Work Life Balance free essay sample

Through this research, an attempt is also been made to make out the different personal motives and its main concern among the different demographic groups which could help us in designing the Work-Life Balance policies for employees in Indian Hospitality Industries. The Human Resource Management function has to constantly plan and carry out such policies which enable their employees to balance their personal and professional life. Furthermore, the increasing number of Dual Income Single Kid couples and members from nuclear families in the Indian Hospitality Industry has made Work-Life Balance practices necessary. According to (Torrington 2008), the quick increase in number of women within the workforce who are willing to combine both family and work responsibilities together, thus it is for these employees within the diverse workforce for whom the work life balance programs play a crucial role in enhancement of any employee’s overall performance within the hospitality companies. Whatever is provided in the name of Work-Life Balance may not meet the requirements of the employees in the hospitality industry with different demographic backgrounds. Through this study, an attempt has been made to recognize different personal motive and its priority with respect to Work-Life Balance amongst employees belonging to different demographic profiles. This would guide to development and improvement of the overall presentation of the employees within the organization. LITERATURE REVIEW It has been seen that over the years the trends as well as the requirements of the hospitality sector are also changing at a fast speed. This change in the work place forces the hospitality industries to make an effort and know what measures they should adopted in order to understand the different personality of different people who are working together in the same organization for the same objective. (Hebs 2002) defined Work-Life Balance as â€Å"Working practices that acknowledge and aim to support the needs of staff in achieving a balance between their homes and working lives. † Another author (Sara 2008) stated that knowledge of the Work-Life Balance issues and options are consistently stretched amongst professionals. With shortage of professionals and economy, the pressures on the existing employees look set to rise and therefore this is an area which needs to be revisited with a view of adopting best practices throughout the sector. (Fiona 2007) explains that â€Å"flexible practices are good for Work-Life Balance and managers are better in terms of maintaining a good Work-Life Balance than workers, and that the development of an appropriate Work-Life Balance policy assists in ensuring company loyalty and positive attitudes to work. (Liz 2004) explored the main barriers to women’s development and highlights the long working hours associated to managerial roles as a major problem. According to (Doherty, 2001), â€Å"often work in the hospitality industry is a way of life, with people working at all times of the day and night. Whilst this is a challenge for work-life balance, it also offers opportunities for all kinds of creative work patterns. With just a little will and imagination thes e can be designed to meet the needs of employees as well as of the business. Doherty explains that long working hours under stressful conditions is the daily routine in Indian Hospitality Industry. However this situation has risen confront and stressed on the need for the progress of work life balance for the hospitality industry. Another author (Hudson 2005) argued that the want and reason for work life varies from person to person. A small of people want a balance between work and responsibilities of children, while others may want time for themselves so that they can relax themselves after doing a lot of hard work for so much long time. In the recent Indian scenario as experienced by hospitality employees, the ageing employee population also expressed a need for work-life balance, so as to maintain their financial needs and become independent. These employees belong to generation X who gives preference to the balance between work and family lives. (Patton, 2009). However the new generation or in other words generation Y considers and values job security, job commitment and job satisfaction as valuable variables of a job. Generation Y also expresses a sheer need for work life balance in order to deal with internal and external work pressures. It has also been noticed that the thinking patterns and behavioral approaches of generation Y are more complex and diverse as compared to the employees of generation X. Another author (Jeff and Juliette 2007), proposed that employees do influence work-life balance issues in the financial service sector and that work-life balance initiatives had greater approach and quality where independent unions were recognized. In all cases, however, the amount of departure from minimal constitutional levels of condition was not great. Jennifer and Susan 2010) in their study found that part-time managers of the sample chosen in the study held varied careers while working full-time, but careers stalled once a transition to part-time work was made. The majorities were career-focused, worked intensively and felt frustrated with their lack of mobility and career progression while working part-time. RESEARCH DESIGN â€Å"Research design is a general plan of how we will go answering the research-questi on. † It would contain clear objectives, derived from my research questions. (Saunders 2003). After reviewing the literature on hospitality and the challenges that the employees face when they balance their time between work and personal life. The hospitality service sector has to change itself and struggle to attract, develop, hold and organize the services of skilled employee and trained them so that they can balance work and life easily. (Roche Brannick 2007), found that the research process provides a organized and intended approach to a research project and ensures all aspects of the project are reliable with one another. (Smith et. al. 002) argues on research design saying that it is basically organizing of research activity and including the collection of data which helps in achieving the research aims. (Saunders 2003) understood this research proposal and used it in the ‘onions’ model which describes the various research strategies and the research approach that helps in achieving the aim of the research. Data Collection: (Saunders et al. , 2007) explain s that in order to answer the research questions the most vital step is data collection. He further explains data can be collected in two ways: Primary and secondary data collection. Primary data may be defined as: â€Å"The data gathered for research from the genuine site of incident of events is called primary data. † (Sekaran, U. , 2000), whereas Secondary Data may be defined as â€Å"The studies made by others for their own purposes represent secondary data. † (Schindler, P. A and Cooper, D. , 2003). To answer this research question secondary data and primary data will be used. Gathering primary data will help us know the factors that actually will help introducing work life balance in employees from both the manager and the employees’ perspective. Collecting secondary data which has been gathered with the purpose of literature review will help to have detailed information about the research topic. This will help to substantiate the primary research being carried out. (Saunders et al. , 2007) explain that different researchers have generated a variety of classifications for secondary data. Reliability: â€Å"Reliability is primarily a matter of stability: if an instrument is administered to the same individual on two different occasions the question is, will it yield the same result? † (Smith et. al. 002) For example, it can help to measure a mannerism then every time the test is administered to a subject matter, the results should be more or less the same. But it is impossible to calculate reliability accurately, but it can be anticipated in a number of diverse ways. The sources used for the research proposal are books and articles which are measured to be reliable sources. I might generate different results if the ques tionnaires are completed in varying span of time. So for getting the questionnaires filled by the employees a time will be chosen when the employees may not be busy with their work. These approaches will be used at the time of the scheming of the questionnaire. (Saunders et al. , 2007) Validity: â€Å"Validity is a question of how far we can be sure that a test or instrument measures the attribute that is supposed to measure. † (Smith et. al. 2002). Initially we would ask an expert or group of experts to comment on the representativeness and suitability of the questions. As well as allowing suggestions to be made on the structure of the questionnaire, this will help in developing content validity and allow us to make essential measures prior to pilot testing with a group as similar as possible to the final demographic sample.